The Met Office puts UK rainfall for September at 104% of average, while England received 65%.1 The Environment Agency says 11 areas of England are in drought and reservoirs are 54% full.3
September was warm across the UK, with a mean temperature of 14.6°C, joint fourth warmest since records began in 1884.1 Rainfall looks unremarkable: 94.7 mm, which is 104% of the 1991 to 2020 average.1
That average is made of very different parts. Scotland had 137% of its usual rain and Northern Ireland 135%, while England had 65%. In eastern and north-eastern England the figure was 43%.12 The summer was the hottest on record, as Noodle News reported on 11 October, and September did little to ease the dryness that followed it.
The Environment Agency reported English reservoir storage at 54% for the week to 8 October, 21% below the average for the time of year. Nineteen reservoirs or groups were under half full and eight were classed as exceptionally low.3 Yorkshire was due to move into drought on 9 October, making 11 areas in drought and three in prolonged dry weather.3
Of 55 monitored river sites, 26 were notably or exceptionally low and 11 were normal.3 The Agency says further significant rainfall is needed to return to normal conditions for many water companies, and its chief executive has said this will take months of sustained wet weather.13
The Met Office figures are provisional and may change. The sources give one month of rainfall and one week of water-resource data, so they do not show how far the shortfall since the summer has accumulated. Nothing here says when restrictions will ease, because that depends on rainfall over the coming months.